Reykjavik Travel Guide and Golden Circle Travel Guide
Reykjavik Travel Guide
If someone comes and says to describe Reykjavik in two words, I guess we would say this; boxy and expensive!
In our opinion, Reykjavik is a boxy city. The houses are box-like, with steep roofs and colourful. It is possible to walk everywhere. We may have done justice to saying Reykjavik is expensive.. Because it’s VERY expensive! So if you have plans to try gourmet places, drink lots of drinks in Reykjavik, be prepared to give up a kidney or an arm.. us? We were fed from the supermarket.
Don’t mind what we say, we loved Reykjavik. It’s a small city on its own, so you can easily spend a day on your Iceland trip
Places to visit in Reykjavik and Reykjavik food and beverage before the guide:
To talk about pills and pills;
Transportation from Keflavik Airport to Reykjavik, “one way person by shuttle” about 25 euros per head. You can’t go cheaper. If you catch the city bus, which departs 6 times a day, it costs 19 Euros per person, but the road is quite long.. The shuttle takes about 45 minutes.
Considering that you can rent a car for 50 Euros a day, it is almost cheaper to rent a car than the shuttle if you are two people.
Blue Lagoon If you are planning to visit it, it is best to go on the day you land or return to the airport.. Because Blue Lagoon is very close to Keflavik Airport. We talked about the Blue Lagoon in detail in our Preparation for Iceland article.. You can buy your Blue Lagoon tickets here.
Credit cards are accepted everywhere in Reykjavik. We never used cash. You can even pay 1-2 Euros with a credit card.
Reykjavik Accommodation:
It is more convenient to rent studio apartments or rooms in Reykjavik than hotels.. Since we were 4 people, we rented a 1+1 flat for two nights in Reykjavik.. Since we ate our breakfasts and dinners at home, we got rid of the obligation to eat expensive things outside.
We paid 180 Euros for 2 nights in Siggi Apartment, where we stayed for 2 nights.. Neither too expensive nor too cheap by Reykjavik standards. We can say that it is an average price.
On our last night in Iceland, we returned to Reykjavik and stayed at a hostel called Travel INN just to spend the night.. Glad we didn’t have to endure more than one night, it was the worst hostel we’ve ever stayed in.
Places to Visit in Reykjavik
The crown jewel of Reykjavik Blue Lagoon” We talked about it quite extensively in our article, so let’s not repeat it here.
Skolavördustigur and Laugavegur Reykjavik’s two most important streets. While visiting the city, you will go back and forth through these streets.. We, for example, spent most of our time on these streets looking for cheap beer and food.. Can we find it? Not really.
Also Eymundsson, Iceland’s most famous bookstore, is also here.. Did we mention that children in Iceland grow up with elf stories?. It gets a little sad when you think about what our country’s children grow up with.
Hallgrimskirkja
The weirdest church we’ve seen in Reykjavik, even Iceland. It is also the largest church in the country and the 6th tallest in Iceland.. The building.
At its entrance is the statue of Leif Erikson, a Viking who is thought to have traveled to America centuries before Columbus.. The entrance to the church is free, but if you want to go to the top, it costs around 5-6 Euros.
Reyjkavik Art Museum, National Gallery of Iceland and Icelandic Phallological Museum 3 famous museums you can visit in the city. We didn’t visit any museums this time.
Apart from all this, Reykjavik has a very lively nightlife, but frankly, it takes a lot of money to stay out and have fun all night.. Indeed, they have very nice bars, but we drank 1-2 beers at most and ran home, have fun for those who can stay longer!
Reykjavik Food & Drink
For us, Eating and drinking in Reykjavik has mostly = BONUS supermarket. But still, just so we don’t mind, we ate out a couple of times and tried a few coffee shops.
‘Lemon‘ is one of the places that make relatively cheap and good sandwiches.. Two sandwiches + juice cost around 20 euros. This is very cheap compared to the Icelandic average. Come on, think about the rest. Another alternative is ‘Noodle Station‘ in the immediate vicinity.
Icelandic Street Food is a cheap snack option, for example, a small bowl of soup is 10 Euros!
The ‘Reykjavik Toasters‘, famous for its bagels and coffee, has several branches in the city. Coffees are between 7-10 Euros on average.. You will understand the pleasure of drinking coffee for 1 Euro. Our favorite coffee shop was ‘Stofan Café‘.
Kiki Queen Bar, the city’s most famous gay bar. You will already see the rainbow entrance. The place we went to on our first and last night in Iceland was Kaldi Bar. Especially if you can catch the ‘happy hour’, the beers come to about 7 Euros.. Wine glass is around 11-15 Euros.. In fact, we didn’t drink wine here on the first night as it was expensive, and on the last night we ordered a glass of wine for ourselves without question.. We are so used to being expensive in a week…
In our opinion, Iceland’s best beer is Kaldi (competing with Munich beers) and one of the best places to try this beer Micro Bar. You can even order a tasting tray for the crowd and try all the varieties!
Kaffibarinn is another fun beer alternative.
Finally, another brewer Skuli Craftsbar.
Iceland does not have a very special cuisine, its most special dish is whale meat. You can’t find this in every restaurant.. If you want to treat yourself to a whale meat, Prir Frakkar is the best place in Reykjavik to do it.. We didn’t eat it, but our friends we went with tried it, they gave it 7 out of 10..
That’s all we have to say about
Reykjavik, we think we should talk about Golden Circle now!
Golden Circle Travel Guide: Golden Circle Route
Golden Circle, a world-famous natural beauty route, one of Iceland’s must-have routes. Imagine what waterfalls, caves, natural parks, a rift you can dive, and crater lakes on this route in 1 day.. Where in the world does it offer you all this in a single day in one country? We thought but couldn’t find it.
There are Golden Circle tour buses from Reyjkavik every day, but if you ask us, the most sensible thing to do is to rent your own car.. These tours cost at least 80-100 Euros per person, you can rent the car for 50 Euros per day, you can think of it as a maximum of 100 Euros including petrol.. That’s why we vote for renting a car.
The good thing about Golden Circle is that the places you will visit along the route are close to Reykjavik and it’s easy to take a day trip. have a route. The downside is that it’s an easy route for everyone, if you don’t leave the hotel in time, you have to play catch-up to take a photo with 1000 squint-eyed friends in the places you go.. Therefore, the most logical thing is to leave the hotel early in the morning (between 6 – 7 am if possible) and start the tour before the tour buses.. It’s a much more enjoyable route if you don’t have to deal with the crowds, that’s for sure!
We set off early in the morning, and in order Kerið crater, Haukadalur, Strokkur and Geysir, Gullfoss, Bruarfoss (Waterfall), Thingvellir National Park and We toured the Secret Lagoon. You can do the same route in reverse if you want.
By the way, you can reach most of the places we mentioned by following Route 36.. No need to worry about getting lost on the way. If you have internet Google Maps, if you don’t, Maps.me(we think it is) shows places/directions quite well. We had no trouble finding the way.
Kerið Crater
This is a volcanic crater lake. If you come in the spring and see the unfrozen turquoise water, you can catch very beautiful views.. Since we went in March, it was a bit of a frozen time, but even then it was beautiful.
Whether you go around it or go all the way down, it’s beautiful.
By the way, this is Iceland with an entrance fee. The only place where there is an entrance fee of 3 Euros. We couldn’t understand why we got here when there is no entrance fee to any other crater in Iceland, I guess because this is the most visited crater, they thought that the more we get, the more snow is.
Haukadalur, Strokkur and Geysir
In our opinion, this is undoubtedly the most interesting attraction of Golden Circle. 3 active geysers erupting every 7-8 minutes!
What is a geyser? Frankly, we didn’t quite know before we went to Iceland.. It means boiling sulphur, spewing hot water or hot steam at regular intervals.. we have learned.
These 3 geysers are in the same area and very close to each other.. They spray water with a temperature of 90-100 degrees every 8-9 minutes, about 15-20 meters high! You have to hibernate your phones/cameras as this all-inclusive squirt doesn’t even last for about 10 seconds.
Strokkur While you’re waiting for the water to squirt, you’ll be reminded of what a strange island you are visiting.
Gullfoss
We said ‘Foss’ means waterfall in Icelandic, ‘Gull‘ means Gold. So Gullfoss means Golden Waterfall.
Let’s give one more detail, even the name of the ‘Golden Circle’ tour comes from this waterfall.. Unlike other Icelandic waterfalls, the water here flows into a crack in the canyon, so you don’t see where the water is going from where you are.
Personally, it seems to us like it’s flowing into a hole into the world.
Gullfoss and Godafoss in North Iceland was the single (or double) most beautiful waterfall of our Iceland trip.
Bruarfoss (Waterfall)
This is an alternative stop you can stop by on your way from Geysir to Thingvellir National Park because the road is a bit complicated and you have to be willing to travel for a total of 1 hour extra round trip.
In the direction of Geysir Brekkuskogur, you walk on the path on your left, and you come across this Blue Lagoon colored waterfall.. The reason why it is not as popular as other Golden Circle points is that its transportation is troublesome.. Definitely worth a visit if you have time!
Thingvellir National Park
Our last stop at Golden Circle was Thingvellir National Park. This is a huge national park, unlike other stops during the day.
That’s why we chose this place as our last stop so that we can decide where to visit in Thingvellir depending on how much time we have before it gets dark.. After all, you can spend half an hour here if you have half an hour, or two days if you have two days, that’s up to you!
The adventurous travelers come here to dive into the Silfra Rift. The Silfra rift is located above the Atlantic rift that separates the continents of Europe and North America.. That’s why this region is designated as both Europe and North America.
If you are an adventurous enough traveler, you can dive into these tectonic plates! Even at a depth of 100 meters, since the magma is very close to the earth, the view is very clear.
Diving is possible with a local guide between May and September.. If you’re interested (we’ll be very jealous, by the way) we’ve left a link here.
Two places you can see if you have limited time in the park are Öxarárfoss Waterfall, and Thingvellir Church..
Alternatively to the Secret Lagoon
If you haven’t had the chance to go to the Blue Lagoon or if the hot waters haven’t cut you off yet, take your Golden Circle route by throwing yourself into the hot waters of the Secret Lagoon
This is a geothermal hot spring like the Blue Lagoon, there is an entrance fee of 35 Euros and you can stay inside as long as you want.. We didn’t enter the Secret Lagoon because we went to the Blue Lagoon, it’s free to photograph from the outside. This place did not affect us that much.
For those who want to review, we leave the Secret Lagoon website link here.
With this article, we have written a total of 40 pages about Iceland.. We think the mission is complete!
On the way a’ Blog wishes you a nice trip!
Love everyone!
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